Operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) have arrested two high-profile kidnap suspects, Yahaya Yakubu and Sani Aliyu, while they attempted to travel for the holy pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.
The arrests were made on Sunday in a coordinated operation at the Hajj camps in Abuja and Sokoto, respectively.
A DSS source revealed that the suspects had been under surveillance for over a year before their eventual apprehension by eagle-eyed operatives.
The source said the ongoing screening at Hajj camps across the country offered the DSS the opportunity to arrest the suspects, adding that both suspects were recognized at the point of screening by the operatives.
Galadi, the source said, has been moved to the service’s headquarters in Abuja from Sokoto.
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Sharing details of the arrest, the source said that Yakubu a resident of Paikon-Kore village in Gwagwalada, FCT, was arrested at the Abuja Hajj camp while Aliyu was nabbed nearly 750 kilometres away, at the Sokoto Hajj camp.
Security sources said Yakubu and Aliyu alias Mai Boxer, both suspected to be responsible for attacks by bandits in the Sokoto-Zamfara axis, did not know that the DSS officers were still on their trail.
A source said that Yakubu presented his passport alongside other Muslim travellers from Abuja who were on their way to observe this year’s hajj.
“It was this afternoon during the screening at the hajj camp in the airport that the DSS operatives apprehended him and whisked him away,” he said.
An official at the Muslim pilgrims welfare board, who didn’t want his name mentioned, also confirmed the arrest of the suspect.